CRACK: HELP CURE ADDICTS, DON'T LURE THEM INTO STERILIZATION

If agents of the state or federal government walked through a Detroit
neighborhood offering $200 to drug abusers who agree to be sterilized, the
community would be outraged. The fact that an African-American woman, with
the backing of a Detroit church, is leading such an effort makes it no more
palatable, despite her good intentions.

The Detroit coordinator of CRACK (Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity) is
a 55-year-old recovering addict who is sincerely concerned about the
problem of crack addicts having babies. Such children, at the very least,
don't get the prenatal care they need.

Babies born to addicted mothers are at risk for addiction themselves, as
well as for learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder. The
even greater risk for children is being born to parents incapable of caring
for them.

Still, a broke addict offered cash is in no frame of mind to make a
reasonable decision that may not be reversible; the cash inducement almost
amounts to coercion for an addict who lives from rock to rock, $5 to $10 at
a time.

A better way to keep addicts from having sick children they can't tend is
encouraging them to use short-term birth control. That allows women who get
their lives together to have children later.

But the best way to attack the problem is through education and drug
treatment. Although it is the most difficult, it allows addicts to make
free choices and gives them a way to be responsible parents and productive
citizens. And it still treats them as human beings.

CRACK organizers say sterilization is a small part of their program. All
the more reason to drop what has become a lightening rod for criticism.

The goal of keeping addicts from having children is good. But it doesn't
justify means that amount to forced sterilization.